Dell Credit Reporting Battle Heats Up

“Dude, you’re getting a lawsuit.”

Retired attorney Stan Weinstein of Sarasota, Fla., filed a small claims suit back in December against ubiquitous computer retailer Dell Computer Corp. Everything changed in March, though, when Weinstein suffered what he felt to be an egregious assault on his credit rating. He has now amended his original complaint, and this time the case may make its way into Sarasota County Circuit Court.

The trouble began when Weinstein purchased a Dell computer with a fax modem ? a modem, it turns out, that wouldn?t work properly. After 16 hours of phone calls to Dell?s customer support line, Weinstein alleges, he was no closer to getting the modem to work than when he first tried the machine. He asked Dell to accept a return on the machine for either a full refund or store credit on another machine. Unfortunately for Weinstein, he had exceeded the company’s 21-day return policy. Dell declined to honor the return.

According to Weinstein, Dell added insult to injury by charging him $99 for software support; support, Weinstein says, that didn?t fix the problem. So Weinstein refused to pay. Dell, taking Weinstein’s refusal in stride, have bumped that $99 charge up to $174 with the addition of late charges and interest.

Then, Dell reported the overdue charges to one of the big credit bureaus. Further complicating the matter, it was Dell Financial Services who reported Weinstein ? which could make Weinstein’s complaint against Dell Computer Corp. a little tougher to prove.

You can read more about this story at Stakes grow higher in Weinstein v. Dell.